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This pocket book is a great resource for anyone working in a shop. It’s designed for metal workers and machinists, but the information contained within comes in handy in lots of situations. Best of all, it’s durable enough to survive in a shop environment, and every page is coated in a glare-free laminate that resists tearing and won’t get all filthy.

Very handy manual for installers also. The spanish version is written in “plane Spanish” and the hardware store seller give us a glossary for mexican tech terms.
All measures come in metric and imperial in each table, drawing or chart, you no need to exchange units.
Thumbs up!

I received the Handbook as a Christmas present and spent the evening with my nose buried in it. I am a ski area lift maint mechanic and found the book not only interesting but helpful in my daily life. A huge Thank you to those who compiled it.

Hi Nick, Thank you for your interest in our Black Book Series. I wish to advice that we are currently working on Android, Apple and Blackberry apps and hope to release them shortly. We will keep you informed.

Electrical Black Book

Electricity has fascinated human kind since our ancestors first witnessed the dramatic effects of lightning. Ancient Egyptian texts dating back to 2750 BC refer to the effect of electric shocks delivered by catfish and torpedo rays and were aware that such shocks could travel along conducting objects.
The first discoveries of electricity were made back in ancient Greece in 600 BC. Thales of Miletus discovered, that when an amber rod was rubbed against cloth or cat’s fur, lightweight objects such as feathers and pieces of paper etc. would stick to it.
Thales believed that friction rendered the amber rod magnetic in contrast to materials such as Magnetite which needed no rubbing. His thinking was later proved to be incorrect, because the magnetic effect that he envisioned was in fact “static electricity” as we know it today.
Curiosity into electricity remained more or less dormant until 1600, when English physician William Gilbert made a careful study of electricity and magnetism and discovered that the earth is in fact a giant magnet and explained how compasses work.
His work led him to coin a new latin word - “electricus” - meaning “like amber”. It’s association with the Greek word ”ẽlecktron” - meaning “amber” subsequently gave rise to the English words “electric” and “electricity” which first made their presence in print in 1646.
In 1729, Stephen Gray showed that electricity doesn’t have to be made by rubbing and that it can also be transferred from place to place with conducting wires and this gave a new dimension to the idea of electricity.
In 1733, Charles Francois du Fay discovered that electricity comes in two forms which he called resinous(-) and vitreous(+) which were later renamed negative and positive.
In 1757, James Watt, an instrument maker by trade, set up a repair shop in Glasgow in 1757. Watt strongly believed that the steam engine would one day replace animal power, where the number of horses replaced seemed an obvious way to measure the charge for performance. Interestingly, Watt measured the rate of work exerted by a horse drawing rubbish up an old mine shaft and found it amounted to about 22,000 ft-lbs per minute. He added a margin of 50% arriving at 33,000 ft-lbs. Today, we use the conversion factor of 1 Horse power equals to 33,000 ft-lbs per minute.
Continued in the Electrical Black Book.................